LDP exec hints at no-confidence motion if DPJ carries over tax bill

ASAHIKAWA, HOKKAIDO – The conservative Liberal Democratic Party might submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government if it defers action on its tax hike legislation beyond the current Diet session, an LDP executive threatened Sunday.

Noda is pushing to get the bill passed before the Diet closes for the summer recess in June, but the opposition, which proposed the tax in the first place, is dragging its feet.

If Noda meets with Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight and tax opponent Ichiro Ozawa and agrees to pursue the bill’s passage in an extra Diet session this fall, “We as an opposition party will have to deal with it with grave resolve,” LDP Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara said in a speech in Asahikawa, Hokkaido.

“The prime minister has said he will stake his political life” on the bill, Ishihara said.

Noda, who also leads the ruling DPJ, is eager to speak with the former party leader to see if he can persuade him to back the bill, which stipulates a doubling of the 5 percent consumption tax in two stages by October 2015.